Archive for April, 2011

One of the reasons we did the rating system is because people like to rank things. Okay, I like to rank things. We had toyed with fractional warps but in the end, the rating system is less about scientific accuracy than it is about putting episodes in the same general group/pool as each other. Is “Obsession” better than “By Any Other Name”? Well… maybe. But we can at least agree they’re both better than “The Empath.”

You understand.

So let’s see the top tiers. Out of 79 episodes, only eight managed to get both Eugene and my unequivocal admiration. Can you guess which ones?

Torie: For the past two years, Eugene and I have written about 50,000 words–each–about Star Trek, not including plot summaries, comment threads, and trivia. All week I’ve wondered, is there anything left to say about the series that hasn’t been said already?

Original Pilot
Production episode: 1
Original air date: October 4, 1988
Star date: Unknown

Mission summary

Without any helpful narration over the opening credits, or even some kind of “captain’s log,” it’s hard to tell just what’s going on here. This ship, which is called U.S.S. Enterprise, seems to be on a mission in space. The duration of its voyage and its purpose is unclear, but my instincts tell me the crew is seeking out new life and new civilizations, or vice versa, as the case might be. But they’re certainly going where no one has gone before.

The biggest obstacle in re-watching a show like Star Trek is that it’s, well, old. Forty-five years old. It’s hard to believe anyone was even alive back then. And while the show deals with timeless themes of identity, loneliness, moral responsibilities, and the yearning for a better future, it looks and feels about as slick and cool as your grandparents’ answering machine. This unfortunate truth breaks our hearts. We love the show so much and we want to bring it to our peers: a younger, hipper audience, who aren’t so inclined to pick up musty-smelling ’60s television.

But it’s not just that. Our re-watch is quickly aging out of the desirable demographic. At nearly two years old, the early posts just didn’t have the advantages of the amazing new technologies we have today. How do we attract new readers, who like explosions and snark and Twitter, when all we have to offer is boring academic and cultural analysis? And then we realized, the fount of all knowledge is still in Star Trek. What would Star Trek do?

So starting today, we’ll be remastering the re-watch. The proprietary, obscure remastering process will make our re-watch more relevant and more modern. But chillax, dinosaur fans: we want to do it with class and with style.

What you have to look forward to:

New and improved episode reviews!

Exciting bells & whistles!

Commentary tracks by the creators!

Modern special effects!

Contemporary pop culture references!

Behind-the-scenes gossip!

Correction of anomalous canon!

More accurate warp ratings!

Seamless social media integration!

More exclamation points than ever before!

The best part is that we’ll be bringing this to you at no charge.

Technology has come a long way since 2009. We are absolutely thrilled to say, definitively, that now you can see our Re-Watch as it was truly meant to be seen.